Hypothetical Internal Reserve 1952

The frontispiece of Robinson and Keeble's The Development of Building Estates, Estates Gazette, London 1952, features a small triangular internal reserve at the top which is entirely treed.Pp. 144-147 of the book shows that this reserve came about as a conscious attempt to retain a triangular piece of forest from the pre-developed land; which is to say, its shape and position make it an overly convenient inclusion in this hypothetical.

Robinson and Keeble advise (p. 142) that the residential area being developed here was to include 4 acres (1.6 hectares) of 'minor open spaces' but there is no other information on this space or its intended purpose.

Leberecht Migge

I am reading David H. Haney's When Modern was Green: Life and Work of Landscape Architect Leberecht Migge (Routledge, Abingdon 2010). Two internal reserve developments - very different ones - leap out. 1926 Onkel Toms Hutte was, Haney writes, built in 'a much-loved conifer forest on the edge of the wealthy Zehlendorf villa district... simple modernist housing blocks among stands of evergreen trees... stood out against the plain facades... the main open spaces were semi-public courtyard-like wooded areas inside the major blocks.' (p. 185)(p. 189)
1927 'Housing blocks in Berlin had traditionally contained one or more inner courts, a type that Migge proposed to enlarge to the greatest extent possible, to be planted as garden-like spaces, complemented by roof gardens providing still more outdoor activity areas... A housing block in the Berlin district of Pankow designed by Erwin Gutkind, with a garden court by Migge, was shown as a concrete example.' (pp. 193-4)

Chatham Village, Pittsburgh

'My ideas for Scottish housing were influenced strongly by the brilliant landscape architect Henry Wright, a 1901 Penn architecture graduate, and the architect-planner Clarence Stein. They had invented the superblock, first employed in Radburn, New Jersey, later on in Chatham Village in Pittsburgh and Baldwin Hills Village near Los Angeles.'

Ian McHarg A Quest for Life: An Autobiography John Wiley & Sons New York 1996, p. 107